Monthly Archives: June 2017

One of my students, Sebastian, told our Conversation class this experience: “I was on a hike in the Hundred Acre Woods (a forest near campus). It was a beautiful morning. The sun was shining through the tree branches. Suddenly, I heard a wooshing sound near my head. Something attacked my head. And then my hat was gone. I looked up and notice an owl flying away with my hat.”

The Sebastian left the room, and Kenji came in and told this experience: “One day, I was walking in the Hundred Acre Woods. I had a small backpack with my lunch in it. I was wearing a jacket and a baseball hat. All of a sudden, I heard a sound near my head, and before I could look up, an owl took my hat and flew away with it.”

Which of these students, Sebastian or Kenji actually had this experience? Finding this out is the goal of this “Truth or Lie” game. The students love it.

(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.)

In our college, there was a category of ESL students who stymied the instructors. They were fluent speakers but continually struggled with basic the grammar on writing tasks. Any ESL program that has immigrant students will probably have these types of students described as “ear-learners” or Generation 1.5.

Gen 1.5 students are sort of between first generation and second generation immigrant. They immigrated with their family when they were elementary or high school age.

A growing number of these students indicate a goal of obtaining a college degree. However, unfortunately, many of them struggle to make the transition from studying basic English skills in ESL courses to taking academic ESL and mainstream academic courses.

Among those who do apply to colleges, a considerable number do not meet the minimum standards for writing and are thus not accepted.

I, along with two colleagues, were able to get a grant a few years ago to study these students and to develop an approach to helping them learn grammar for writing by taking into consideration their special learning styles.

In this posting, I’ll describe these students and their learning styles. I’ll also explain the type of materials and include examples that we used with them. And finally, I’ll summarize the very positive results that we got from the study.